by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

SOCHI, Russia â?? As teammates struggled to explain how they felt to go home without a medal, USA captain Zach Parise summed it up with three words.

"A little embarrassing," Parise said. "With what was on line and for us not to play well in either game is something that will frustrate us for a long time.

Early in the week, the Americans were viewed as the Olympic men's hockey tournament's most impressive team. Now, a 1-0 loss to Canada in the semifinals and a 5-0 loss to Finland in the bronze medal game sends them home wondering what went wrong.

"It feels like we played this tournament for nothing," said U.S. center Paul Stastny.

How did a team that scored 20 goals in the first four games go scoreless over six periods in the two games that mattered most?

In these situations, it's never one problem. It's a confluence of factors that swirl together to get a team caught in a down draft. Patrick Kane missed on two penalty shots, one of them ringing off the post. The Americans were undisciplined, giving the Finns 9:30 of power play time.

Don't discount the inspired play of the Finns. Their 43-year-old captain, Teemu Selanne, playing in his sixth Olympics, lifted his team with a pair of goals. Jussi Jokinen scored 11 seconds after Selanne scored in what seemed like the turning point of the game.

U.S. coach Dan Bylsma was so disappointed with forward Dustin Brown's performance on those plays that he benched him. Brown ended up playing just 4:48 in the game.

But all of those factors fall under the broader truth that the Americans didn't play as intensely over the past two games as they did in the preliminary round, particularly against Russia.

"We stopped playing that team game that got us where we are," Parise said.

Social media likely will blow up over whether the U.S. selection committee picked the right players. Bobby Ryan can be an effective scorer, but he wasn't going to be the difference in this tournament. This was the right team. That was clear for two-thirds of the tournament. But the team didn't play the right way when it was needed most.

"With a medal on the line and you get blown out 5-0, that is unacceptable at this time in a tournament," Parise said.

The Americans were devilish in their first four games, and more passive in their last two games. Unquestionably, Canada and Finland were more formidable opponents than the teams USA faced early in the tournament.

Kane was supposed to be the Americans' go-to scorer, but he couldn't find the net. He had no goals and four assists.

"No excuses," he said. "Wasn't good enough, wasn't good enough to help a team win a medal. I was expected to do a lot more."

Kane is having an exceptional season in Chicago.

"Whether it was confidence (in Sochi) or just not getting the chances, who knows?" he said.

U.S. center David Backes seems to be the conscience of the American squad, and he offered this: "If we are honest about this, the last two games, we had better performances in the tank. That's the disappointing thing. Had we played our butts off and were ousted, you can live with that."

Parise indicated he will have trouble living with this.

"We had high expectations," he said. "And to leave on this note is pretty ugly."